Stealing Sydney
by Daniel Vale 57
Summary: When two people are tasked with the same dead, they partner up, for more than just a mission. Rated T, just to be safe Self-insert to the Fallout 3 quest "Stealing Independence" and the events that occur afterward.
1. Chapter 1

Stealing Sydney

Self-insert to the Fallout 3 quest "Stealing Independence"

A little back-story on my character and the world he lives in:

Name: Daniel Vale

Appearance: white-tan skin, brown eyes, short black hair. Tall, well-built form, in the prime of youth. Almost always wears a Regulator Duster and wields an Ak-47 (aka Chinese Assault Rifle.

Positions: Regulator, Savior of Megaton

Key events: killing the Overseer of Vault 101 (Amata's father), loss of Lucas Simms (shot by Mr. Burke) aiding the West's and letting Ian West move into Megaton.

Known titles: Lone Wanderer, Paladin of the Wastes, Restorer of Hope.

Bullets started to pepper around me and Fawkes, I instantly pushed Fawkes behind a ruined stack of desks.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" I shouted at the figure that was still firing from behind a pile of rubble.

"You can't help a Mutie!" the shadowed person yelled back. A woman, probably the same age as me judging by the sound of her voice.

"He's different! Let us through before more hostiles show up!" I hollered, starting to peep through over the rubble I was hiding behind, trying to see what she looked like.

She lowered her weapon. "Alright hurry up before you alert every other Mutie in this place."

I nodded to Fawkes, as he pushed himself up and I did the same. We ran to the source of fire.

"How the hell did you get one to follow you?" She asked.

"Long story." I said stressing the o in long. "Let's start with names, Vale." I said, pushing my thumb to my chest.

"The name's Sydney," she said, stretching out her hand which I gratefully shook. It was always nice to find someone in the Wasteland who wasn't a complete jerk. She was really cute to. Tan skin, short black hair, almond brown eyes, just like mine actually.

"I see that Abraham Washington got someone else to go on this suicide mission." She said, putting a fresh clip in her 10mm SMG.

"I take it you're here for the declaration, what do you know about it?" I asked her.

"Some old pre-war document that the old man can't wait to get his hands on, but the area is flooded with Super Mutants, not even my upgraded SMG can take all of them."

"What's this about your SMG?" I asked, looking down at it.

"Increased rate of fire, I'm sure you heard it on your way over here." She chuckled, gesturing toward the pile of mutant bodies that both she and I had helped to make.

"Anyway," she said, returning to the topic at hand, "Why don't we team up, get the declaration, and then go to Rivet City and have a few drinks after we split the reward?"

"Sounds like a good deal to me, but if we're going to Super Mutant turf, you need to be at your best."

She looked at me puzzled, "For a wanderer you seem to care about others a lot, even for a Regulator." She said, looking over my coat.

"Hey, good people are hard to come by, so I need to protect as many as I can. Do you need stimpacks? Rations? Ammo?"

"Well, they did do a number on me, but I'll walk it off. I've been through worse." It was only then that I noticed the bullet holes in the front of her black armor.

"Here, let me help you with that." I grabbed a nearby overturned table and put it face up, gesturing for her to sit on it. I took out a wrench I found in one of the many toolboxes that there were on the way over, and started pulling the bullets out of her armor.

To break the silence, I spoke, "Now that we're working together, why don't you tell me more about yourself?"

She laughed as I yanked another round out.

"What is this a date?"

I laughed to, "Well if you want it to be."

"Well what is there to tell though? I grew up just like every other girl in the wastes, staying away from slavers, just trying to stay alive."

I chuckled, "Maybe you and I share a thing or two in common." Becoming slightly more serious, I asked her, "how's your back?"

"It's nothing…" She said, not wanting to show weakness. To which I sarcastically replied, "Uh-huh, turn over." She looked hesitant, I was still a stranger to her, so I reassured her, because I knew she would expecting a shot in the back. "Trust me, I'm a doctor."

And at that she slowly turned around and laid forward. The back of her combat armor was only cloth and leather, and had a few holes in it. Two had blood stains around the hole.

"Shit, Fawkes, I need two stimpacks." I held out an open, up facing hand in which Fawkes carefully dropped two stimpacks in.

"If I'm going to treat you, this needs to go off," I said tugging at the armor.

She got up, "If you peak I'll kill you." She said, taking off the armor to reveal a gray under shirt. "Noted," I replied pulling off the backside as she lay back on the table and started to treat it as best I could.

"Damn, bastards got you good." I said, tearing out one of the bullet holes and injected some of the first stimpack.

"Yeah," she grunted. "I'm starting to regret taking this job."

I laughed, "The harder you get knocked down, the stronger you will be when you stand back up."

"I guess. So why'd you take this job?" she asked, changing the subject. "Well, I could always use some extra caps, and seeing a bit of history remembered and restored is always good. You?"

"Mostly the caps, I'm one of the few mercs in Rivet City."

"I see…" I concluded, treating the last bullet wound.

"Alright, slap your armor back on and lead us to the Declaration."

"Right," she said, quickly standing up and putting her gear back on.

"Oh, and take these stimpacks, I have plenty to spare."

"Thanks, you're to damn nice for a wastelander." She chuckled, and at that I had to laugh.

"I get that a lot, believe it or not."

She seemed a little lacking, only having one SMG, and upgraded or not, a 10mm wouldn't fare well against a horde of mutants.

"And take this to, I had Fawkes bring a spare in case mine broke, but you can have it."

She gladly took and loaded the fully repaired Ak-47 I offered her.

"So do you know the way to the declaration?" I asked her.

"Yeah, just give me a second to unlock the elevator on my terminal." She said, hitting a few keys on a nearby computer. The elevator across the hall, which was previously encompassed with a red-orange light, was now supporting a dark green.

"Let's go." I said, and all three of us headed toward the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

Stealing Sydney 2

"Next time, put up a fight!" Fawkes roared to the bleeding corpses of several super mutants and centaurs.

"Good job Fawkes, ok shouldn't be much further right?" I asked Sydney.

"Yeah, just a few more rooms I believe." She replied, cocking her rifle. "Can't wait to have a drink in that old tub…" She added.

I grunted, "Yeah, you and me both." As I walked into the next room, only to be hit over the back with a damn nail board.

The beast attacking me roared as I already started unloading rounds into him.

"I'LL WEAR YOUR GUTS AROUND MY NECK, HUMAN!" were his last words as Fawkes blew his head of with a red laser from his Gatling gun.

I hissed in pain as I felt the nail board fall off my back, leaving two of the metal spikes in my back and bleeding. I got down on one knee, the pain was too much, these nails were much sharper that the ones most mutants used. As Sydney helped me up, pulling me back into the previous area, Fawkes guarded the doorway and made sure the rest wouldn't get through.

"Hold still," was the only thing I heard as Sydney sat me back down, and started tearing the nails out. I yelled out in pain and grunted as the sharp metal was torn out, unlike her, I couldn't hide the pain of war. I reached in my duster pocket and pulled out a stimpack and a large bandage. She took them from my hand and used them. I was feeling much better; I could finally open my eyes and relax my clenched teeth.

I grabbed her outstretched hand and pulled myself up. As I reached back down to pick up my weapon, I told her, "Thanks, I guess that makes us even."

She laughed, "Wait we're keeping track?" I returned the laugh and saw Fawkes walk in.

"Room cleared, let's go?" he asked. I stopped laughing and got back into my 'combat state'

"Yeah, let's go."

"Who dares trespass into our quarters? I know what you want! The declaration! And I'll fight you to the death for it!"

The three soldiers looked puzzled at the robot. It was a typical Protectron model, but this machine was wearing a strange white wig, and was painted with blue and gold on several parts.

"We aren't here to cause trouble," I began, kind of ironic considering the dozens of monsters we killed to get in here. "Who are you?"

"My name is Thomas Jefferson and I am here to guard the declaration at all costs from you redcoats!"

If I was confused before, I was even more confused now, but I didn't have the time, nor did I care to find out why a robot was programmed to think he was a man. Knowing that Sydney and Fawkes probably wanted the same thing, I asked him.

"What do I have to do, to get the declaration from you?"

The robot sputtered, "I'll need some new black ink to make a forge document of it, I believe you can get some in the library nearby."

I felt my pockets, I had probably cleared the library weeks ago, killing Raiders and finding loot. Did I still have the ink? According to my pockets, filled with just medicine, ammo, and food, the answer was a big no. I asked Fawkes and Sydney to check if they had the ink. Both said no.

Damnit, I thought, I didn't want to kill him, but I sure as hell didn't want to go back, the trip would probably take an hour, not including all the time we would spend trying to find the ink.

"Listen, we can't afford to go back," I told the robot, "so I'll give you one more chance to step aside…"

"Attack!" The robot replied, turrets nearby staring up. I put a bullet in the machine's 'head' and ducked for cover behind the large metal table. Fawkes and Sydney did the same and we destroyed the robots.

"Ok, just give me a second to pick this lock." I said, clipping my rifle on my back and taking out a bobby pin.

After two tries, I got the lock off, and picked up two rolls of paper. One was marked the declaration, and the other, the Bill of Rights.

I stuffed them both in my pack, flung it over my shoulder, and turned to Sydney.

"Do you think we should we stay here the night? I don't fancy traveling back to Rivet City at dark." She told us.

"That will not be necessary," I said, "I can get us a ride, Follow me," as I took the ladder which led to the roof.

"Vale to Zeta, come in."

"I read you, what do you need?" A voice said back to me over the radio.

"I need transport to Rivet City, we're on the American History Archives facility."

"I see you, sending a ship, should only be a few minutes."


	3. Chapter 3

Stealing Sydney 3

"Vale to Zeta, come in."

"I read you, what do you need?" A voice said back to me over the radio.

"I need transport to Rivet City; we're on the American History Archives facility."

"I see you, sending a ship, should only be a few minutes."

"Thanks Powell, Vale out."

"Just doing my job, Powell out," And the American survivor of Anchorage put down the radio.

"What, who was that?"

"Long story short," I began. "About a month ago, I was abducted by aliens, working with the other human prisoners, we took it from them, and saved Earth by doing so."

"Damn…" was Sydney's only response.

I chuckled, "Well, if someone told me that, I don't think even I could believe it."

I saw the distinctive glint of gray that meant that the ship was breaching the atmosphere. It landed, and the Anchorage-Veteran stepped out.

"Hey," I said, to which he replied, "I was thinking, maybe I should get that house in Megaton and you can be the flying taxi man."

We laughed as the door sealed behind us, and I felt the ship lurch forward into the night, sailing over a destroyed world.

"You shouldn't complain," I started, as I walked toward the refrigerator we had installed and threw Sydney a Brahmin, I did the same to Fawkes, and I got myself some squirrel bits. "You have the safest job of any of us."

"Well when I'm workin' with you, that's not saying much."

And at that we all had to laugh. Most people couldn't go one mission with me without fighting some of the toughest shit the Wasteland had to offer. Sydney was breathing proof of that.

After we ate, Fawkes left to his room to repair his laser and clean his sledgehammer of the blood and gore it had collected.

Leaving me and Sydney in the "Dining room" which consisted of a small table, a couple chairs, and the fridge in the corner.

"So…" I started, I didn't really know how to. "Do you have any family waiting for you when we get back."

"No," she replied. "My father is the one who taught me all about guns. We lived in a small settlement so everyone needed to fight. But when I was just fourteen I woke up one morning, and he was gone."

I could fell the mixture of shock, fear, and horror (that usually came with these stories) creep onto my face.

"Just… gone?" I asked. "No clues, no body, just… nothing?"

She nodded as she took a sip from a Nuka-Cola I slid her earlier. "Yup, I cried for hours, and when I asked the people who lived nearby, not a single soul knew. Do I even have to tell you what it's like for a girl to grow up in the wastes alone at that age?"

I shook my head. "No, I know what that's like."

"What happened with you?"

"I grew up in Vault 101 all my life. Had a good job, saving lives, following in my fathers footsteps, I was going to be the next doctor."

"What happened?"

"Well, my mom died during childbirth, so my dad was the only family I had left. When I was nineteen, one of my friends woke me up in the middle of the night. My dad was gone, left the vault and the overseer, kind of like the leader of the place, wanted me dead."

She lifted her eyebrows and then lowered them. "How'd you escape?"

"The only weapon I had was a goddamn baseball bat. I ran out of my room to see a guard fighting off some Radroaches." I shivered a little; I always hated those oversized bugs.

"After fighting my way through security, I finally had a way out. And I started a search for my father, it lasted months."

"Did you find him?"

I chuckled, "I did, and we worked together for a while on something called Project Purity. I was basically a merc; being paid and fed to make sure the scientists were safe."

I put my hand to my forehead, looking down at my empty plate in shame. "But I failed."

"What happened?"

"What didn't happen… I was repairing some damaged pipes outside, about a fifteen minute walk from the facility. I heard something, and looked up to see Enclave soldiers storming in through the front entrances. By the time I got back, the scientists and workers were either dead or gone… and Enclave soldiers attacked me. I killed each and every one. But by the time I reached the main lab, a four inch glass separated me and my father. But he wasn't alone, an Enclave officer, and two of his dogs, stood, holding dad and a scientist at gunpoint."

"What did he do?"

"The officer killed the scientist, turning to my father, he said he'd be next if he didn't hand over project purity, the dream my father had for his entire life. So James turned, activated some Radiation pulse, I started punching the glass as hard as I could, but one of the scientists, who had worked with my father for years, pulled me away, told me if I went in there, I'd just die to."

There was silence; honestly under the pain of remembering the event I almost crushed the bottle in my hand.

Sydney was patient, and after the short silence asked, "What did you do after?"

"I escorted them to the Citadel, joined up with the Brotherhood, and now here I am."

Desperate to change the tone, I said, "Drinks are on me when we get to Rivet, and when this is all over, I'll show you the Citadel."

Sydney held up her bottle, "To the fallen." I clanked mine to her and said, "We'll never forget."


End file.
